Homeowner and Ladder....

One day, a friend and former neighbour called me. Before my wife and me moved where we are living now, we helped each other whenever needed. So he said: "Uwe, why didn't we do that together, when you were still here?" He had two other guys "helping" him to remove three trees, (large spruce). One of the guys cut the first tree with the chainsaw (of course no chaps, helmet or any other protection!), the tree hit my friends balcony and damaged it. Ok, you might say "nobody 's perfect" or "shit happens", but then it would have been a good moment to think about what went wrong and why. The guys removed two other trees. One hit a neighbours (our former) garage, the other hit another neighbours wall. I am no pro, but I always, always think a lot before doing this or other kinds of dangerous work. Some people seem to never think about. This story was written by real life and sadly is true!
 
I've worked on a crew where we were taking over from the owner's father who had been killed trying to remove a fair size gum tree. He was an amateur and was trying to set a throw line. He was using some sort of weight, I assume lead, and got it caught in the tree. He pulled it hard and it came back, hit him in the head and killed him. RIP. Sobering, hey?

We took over another job where the property owner had broken his leg trying to do the job himself after not liking our quote for removing his palms. It would have been less painful had he given us the job in the first place.
 
I was on the way back from the grocery store this afternoon and saw the text book neighbor on a step ladder with an electric chainsaw scenerio. They had a piece of 3/8 " polypro dock rope tied off to the lowest branch on a 35 ft siberian elm and the other end tied off (with a series of granny knots) to the top rail of a chain link fence. My first thought was to take a picture but I decided to spare the guys dignity. Instead I grabbed the dog leash so me and my mutt could go offer a few words of advise.

I tell the guy that what he is doing doesnt look too safe, and that I only live about a block away and I just happen to own a tree service. He tells me, as he is sitting on the top of a 10 ft step ladder with an electric Remington chain saw that he to used to own a tree service, but he just sold all of his gear. I walk back home, gas up my 193 and drive over about the time the home owner comes out telling me that she cant afford a pro. I tell her I will put the tree on the ground for free just to save these two knuckle heads a trip to the ER. I flopped it neatly into the corner of the yard and figured that it was safe enough to let the two knuckle heads chew on it for a while with their electric chainsaw, which happened to be about as dull as a Mormon bachelor party.

As I jump back in my truck and drive back home to put my ice cream away before it melts I could see the dumber of the two retards give the head fucktard the good ole "what are we gonna do for booze and or dope money now" look. :aburrido:

They have untill this weekend to get 'er diced up into small enough chunks to fit in the roll off containers that the neighborhood is getting for our community clean up project this coming weekend.
 
Jeff said:
When I was young, my dad (NOT a treeworker!) leaned the extension ladder against a large horizontal black cherry leader, about halfway out. He only had enough ladder to get an inch or two above the leader and when he chainsawed the outer half of the leader off, the remaining part sprung up above the top of the ladder. Surprisingly, he was fast enough to fling the Homelite and grab ahold of the remaining leader as the ladder fell away underneath him. I heard him yell and came around the house to find him hanging mid-air from the leader, like it was the world's highest chin up bar.
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I know this is really, really, wrong, but that story gave me the hardest laugh I've had in a long time. Maybe it's the Keystone Cops aspect to it, wherein the wildest crap is happening, yet nobody gets hurt. Just too funny, to me.
 
TimBr said:
but that story gave me the hardest laugh I've had in a long time
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Laugh away, my friend. That's why I posted it. It's just soooo my dad - too big of a rush, not thinking things thru.
Want another? We had an old stump in the yard, cut low but certainly not low enough to mow over. Dad's out there with the 21" lawn mower, tipping it up on 2 wheels trying to trim the tall grass growing right next to the stump. (The weed wacker is 30' away in the garage, but that would make too much sense to go get it.) You guessed it - hit the stump, broke the crankshaft. Took it to the repair shop, paid $$ to have a new crankshaft installed, got it home........... went out and hit the same stump. Totaled the mower that time.
Brisbane Arborist said:
It makes my stump grinding service seem cheap
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Jeff said:
Totaled the mower that time.
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I know people like that. Drives me crazy. Makes you want to just pimpslap some sense into them, but being your dad, probably not an option.
One of them had a big, higher end Ariens riding mower/tractor with a snowblower attachment mounted to the front. He'd clear the parking area with it and when he got to the curbs he'd try to lift the snowblower, with it running, and push the little bit of snow next to the curb up over it, like it was a frontend loader, or something. Trashed the snowblower every damn time. Paid a fortune to have it fixed and would turn around the next time it snowed and do it again. And... wouldn't you know it... bitched up a storm about what a piece of crap the thing was. All of it just so he wouldn't have to get off of it and use a shovel for that little bit of snow right next to the curb.
 
Had a neighbor approach me for an estimate while working the other day. Had a 30 foot extension ladder ratchet straped into a willow tree with dbh of at least 40 inches. I was wondering how he got onto the ladder then noticed a 8 foot step ladder in the garbage can that was absolutely destroyed. He told me he would get a few more estimates and possibly get back to me.
 
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